Highbury Stadium

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

The original stadium was built in 1913 after Woolwich Arsenal chairman Henry Norris moved the club from the Manor Ground in Plumstead, South East London to Highbury, leasing the recreation fields of St John's College of Divinity for 21 years for £20,000. The stadium, designed by Archibald Leitch, was hurriedly built over the summer of 1913. It featured a single stand on the eastern side and the other three sides had banked terracing and cost £125,000. It opened on 6 September 1913 for Arsenal's first match of the 1913–14 season, a 2–1 Second Division win against Leicester Fosse. In 1925, Arsenal purchased the stadium site outright for £64,000. The stadium was significantly redeveloped twice. The first reconstruction came in the 1930s, from which the Art Deco East and West Stands date. The West Stand, designed by Claude Waterlow Ferrier and William Binnie, opened in 1932. On 5 November 1932, the local Tube station was renamed from Gillespie Road to Arsenal. Chapman installed a 45-minute clock on the North Bank in 1935; the clock was later moved to the front of the southern terrace, giving it the name the Clock End. Leitch's main stand was demolished to make way for a new East Stand, matching the West, in 1936. During the Second World War the North Bank terrace was bombed and had to be rebuilt; the roof was not restored until 1956. In 1951 Arsenal became the first team in Division One to fit floodlights, with the first floodlit match being a friendly against Hapoel Tel Aviv on 19 September 1951. Undersoil heating was added in 1964. The second development: the first phase, which added executive boxes to the Clock End, was completed in 1989, and afterward in 1993 a new North Bank Stand was constructed. These latter developments both followed the recommendations of the Taylor Report by replacing the terraces to make the stadium an all-seater with four stands. Further attempts to expand the stadium were blocked by the community, resulting in a reduction in capacity and matchday revenue. This led to Arsenal opting to build a new stadium, the Emirates Stadium. After the club moved to its new stadium upon the conclusion of the 2005–06 season, Highbury was redeveloped as a residential development known as Highbury Square, with the Clock End and North Bank stands being demolished; parts of the East and West Stands remained and were incorporated into the new development

In Their Own Story

The final decades of Highbury were defined by necessary but controversial redevelopment to meet safety standards. Following the Hillsborough disaster and the Taylor Report, terracing was replaced with seating. The Clock End received executive boxes in 1989, followed by the demolition of the original North Bank terrace after the 1991–92 season. Rebuilt as a two-tier all-seater stand in August 1993 at a cost of £20 million, it opened with a surprise 0–3 defeat to Coventry City. This expansion was blocked by community opposition from expanding further, limiting revenue and prompting the club's move to a new stadium. The final match on 7 May 2006 against Wigan Athletic marked the end of an era where the clock on the Clock End had stood since 1930.

Reader's Guide

The stadium hosted international matches – both for England and in the 1948 Summer Olympics – and FA Cup semi-finals, as well as boxing, baseball and cricket matches. Its presence also led to the local London Underground station being renamed as Arsenal in 1932, making it the only station on the Underground network to be named after a football club. In addition to its architecture, the stadium was known for its small but immaculate pitch and for the clock that had been positioned in the southern side of the ground since its introduction in 1930.

Did You Know?

• The stadium's largest attendance was 73,295 on 9 March 1935 when Arsenal played Sunderland in the First Division; the game finished 0–0.
• During the Second World War, Arsenal played their matches at White Hart Lane, home of North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur, until Highbury re-opened in 1946.
• Arsenal's home UEFA Champions League matches in the 1998–99 and 1999–00 seasons were played at Wembley Stadium, as Highbury's already limited capacity had to be reduced to accommodate advertising hoardings.